1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to recording devices for use in conjunction with vehicles, and more particularly, to a portable safety recorder for use by truck drivers to ensure compliance with federal safety highway regulations.
2. Description of the Prior Art
At the present time, the federal motor carrier safety regulations issued by the Bureau of Motor Carrier Safety of the Federal Highway Administration state the following:
a. commercial truck drivers shall not drive the truck more than ten hours per day; PA1 b. the truck driver shall not drive after he has been on duty (driving or not driving) for more than fifteen consecutive hours; PA1 c. after the truck driver has driven for ten hours or has been on duty for fifteen hours, he must spend an eight hour period off duty in order to drive the truck again; PA1 d. the required eight hour off duty period mentioned above may be taken in two rest periods, each lasting for at least two hours; PA1 e. drivers on a weekly schedule may not spend more than sixty hours on duty within any seven consecutive day period; drivers who are not on a weekly schedule may not spend more than seventy hours on duty in any eight consecutive day period.
Federal regulations require truck drivers to maintain a daily log book in which the driver must document his compliance with the above mentioned driving restrictions. Each day, the truck driver must take several minutes to complete his daily log. In many cases, a truck is operated by a pair of drivers who alternate taking their positions behind the steering wheel of the truck. In this event, it is necessary for the first and second drivers to coordinate their respective daily log books with one another. Given the relatively large number of trucks currently being operated, the amount of paperwork, processing, and storage of these daily logs is voluminous. More importantly, it is not uncommon for truck drivers to falsify the daily logs in order to cover more miles than would be possible were the driver to comply with the federal regulations. Incidents of non-compliance with the federal regulations pose a safety risk because drivers operate the truck without having sufficient rest periods.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to eliminate the need for commercial truck drivers to spend time to keep daily logs of the type described above while recording the information normally kept on such logs and displaying the information for inspection by federal authorities.
It is another object of the present invention to record information of the type normally kept by truck drivers in their daily logs and automatically coordinate such information for a pair of truck drivers who alternately drive the same truck.
It is still another object of the present invention to reduce amounts of paperwork and simplify processing and storage of information associated with daily logs of the type mentioned above.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a recording device which compels the driver or drivers to adhere to federal highway safety regulations.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a recording device which can be utilized by commercial truck drivers to indicate compliance with the federal highway safety regulations, which recorder can be carried on the person of the truck driver.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a recording device of the type mentioned above which incorporates an alarm clock and a stop watch for the convenience of the user.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art as the description thereof proceeds.